Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate generally to the monitoring of, and reporting on, the effectiveness of roadway maintenance efforts to remove snow and ice accumulation by measuring the resulting impact to road traffic.
Governmental and other agencies responsible for the maintenance and repair of roadways are often tasked with caring for many hundreds even thousands of miles of roadway. In northern climates, where winter weather can bring snow and ice accumulation, these roadways must frequently be plowed and salted in order to allow vehicles to move safely. Maintenance agencies may employ or contract with large numbers of resources to provide these plowing and salting services. These resources may utilize a variety of equipment and methods to maintain road surfaces. A means of monitoring maintenance efforts to ensure the greatest impact for a given amount of expense may be highly desirable due to the expense involved in managing snow and ice accumulations and the public safety concerns which may arise should management efforts prove ineffective. Such monitoring may be used to determine the effects of the variety of factors which may impact the maintenance process. Such factors may comprise the quantity available snow removal equipment, frequency of a removal, equipment type used, materials applied to the road surface to improve traction and melt snow and ice, and the pre-treatment of road surfaces. Those skilled in the art will understand that this list is only a partial list of possible factors influencing maintenance of roadways subject to accumulations of snow and ice.
Monitoring and reporting on the performance of roadway maintenance may be accomplished by monitoring traffic and weather data and analyzing the effects of weather on traffic flow. In one embodiment of the present invention, weather data may be obtained from a Road Weather Information System (“RWIS”). RWIS systems may comprise a plurality of weather monitoring stations located proximately to roadways. RWIS data may be monitored to determine if there has been an occurrence of snow or freezing rain on or near a roadway. When weather data indicates that conditions may be unfavorable to road travel, the impact of such conditions may be determined via the monitoring of traffic speeds. In order to detect such an impact, monitored traffic speed may be compared to historically expected “normal” speeds for a given time of day, day of the week and time of year. Traffic speed may be obtained from data compiled from various sensors and GPS reporting devices. It may be determined that traffic flow is being impacted when traffic speed is below a predetermined threshold of expected “normal” speed. Unfavorable weather conditions (such as snow or ice), combined with a negative impact on traffic patterns may be referred to as a “weather event.” To determine the effectiveness of road maintenance activities, the amount of time required after such an “event” ends until traffic speed recovers to a normal speed may be measured and compared to predetermined time thresholds. If traffic recovers before a predetermined period of time elapses, the road maintenance effectiveness is considered maximal. If traffic speed does not recover before a second predetermined period of time elapses, effectiveness is considered minimal. The system of the present invention processes the received data and generates an effectiveness report for a given zone, or a given roadway, or a given geographic region.
The monitoring described above may also be performed by review of recorded data where such data may be retrieved from databases containing combined road speed and weather information, in certain embodiments of the invention, such monitoring may be performed in “real-time” (or near real-time), using streams of live data from weather and traffic speed detection systems. In an embodiment of the invention, road speeds and weather conditions may be associated by time throughout the period of time for which maintenance performance data is to be determined. Such data may be collected for large geographic areas and the subdivided into districts or other units of geographic measure as may be required to efficiently manage maintenance resources.
In addition to the novel features and advantages mentioned above, other benefits will be readily apparent from the following descriptions of the drawings and exemplary embodiments.